IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine - July 2020 - 57

Wang et al.

Figure 18.

Figure 16.

Spaceborne waveguide slotted array antenna.

Spaceborne helical antenna.

antenna elements successfully is to simultaneously meet
the requirements of electrical performance and those of
structural performance, including volume, weight, reliability, and installation.

POWER SUPPLY
Due to the limitations of the satellite platform, the volume
and weight limits are extremely rigid for the power supply
of the deployable active phased array antenna. Therefore,
an array power supply with high power density, high reliability, and high efficiency has become one of the key
components of space active phased array antennas. The
application of high efficiency and high density packaging
power can obviously decrease the size and weight of the
entire antenna array. On the other hand, the high power
phased array antennas often require several hundred
amperes of current, which imposes great risks to space
applications. In fact, a high efficiency and reliable power
supply for large aperture, lightweight array antennas
would be very valuable. At present, many distributed current modules tend to be used commonly, and each module
is supplied to part of the subarray so that the large current
can be translated into the small current. It also makes it
easy to implement the redundant backup, which can obviously improve the reliability of the antenna system.
There is a high energy density, large lithium-ion battery with the 2016 lithium-ion battery units (9S-224P configuration: 9 cells in series and 224 series-parallel
topology), which can support the peak power demand of
17.8 kW for the space antennas [90]. Moreover, the total

weight of the power supply is 136 kg, the minimum life is
5 years, and the reliability is up to 99.9%. The battery is
composed of eight identical modules, each of which
includes two parallel electric connectors and two power
buses connected with connectors and current sensors. This
kind of high density packaging power can meet the high
power requirements of the active phased array antenna by
changing the topology configuration and the number of
modules so that the design flexibility of the antenna system is improved and the development cost is reduced.

DEPLOYMENT MECHANISM
The deployment mechanism design of active phased array
antenna occupies an important place in the design of satellite systems. Since the active phased array antenna has
broad military and civilian prospects, the antenna extensibility has become a significant feature of modern large
aperture spaceborne antenna. Many developed countries
have studied the varieties of deployable antennas to meet
the needs of different satellites. The current situation of
deployable antenna in the aerospace field indicates that
the forms of deployment mechanisms mainly fall into
three groups: single reel rolling structures, double reel
rolling structures, and folding-deploying structure [91]
(see Figure 20). The complex deployment mechanism is
the first choice for the antenna system to ensure its normal
operation. Hence, it is necessary to guarantee the reliability of the deployment mechanism.

THERMAL CONTROL TECHNOLOGY

Figure 17.
Spaceborne microstrip array antenna.

JULY 2020

The satellite antenna is subject to various environmental
challenges in the process of launch, orbit injection, operation, and ground return. Especially in orbit or in the process of interstellar travel, the earth's atmosphere no longer
protects the spacecraft against various types of extreme
environmental factors, including the vacuum environment,
very low temperatures, solar radiation, weak magnetic
fields, particle radiation, magnetospheric substorms,
microgravity, atomic oxygen, micro flow star, and ionospheric plasma. Nevertheless, heat is one of the most
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IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine - July 2020

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